I think it is down to owning the customer relationship. If you have to register with them, you are their customer. If you can pay with any card, you're not. They clearly believe they can extract value from you being a customer of theirs.
I can see it now, but I suspect it won't last as more universal chargers become available. It's a bit like bank cards - at one time, you had to search out one of your own bank's ATMs, then someone had a bright idea (or was it mandated by government, I cant remember) and now you can shove your card in any of them and get cash.
If I get to Whitby, find a charger, plug in. Do I have to wait an hour or two for it to charge? Can I wander into Whitby for a few hours leaving my car plugged in? How does that work?
I think that's the general idea. Once you start charging, you lock up and walk away for your shopping/coffee/sandwich/whatever. Nobody can interfere with your car, the doors are locked and the charger cable is locked in. You're not expected to stand there watching.
At the park and ride at Elland Road in Leeds, there are half a dozen chargers. I think drivers get there early, plug in and go to work. They come back eight hours later. What are the chances of using one of those chargers.
You probably wouldn't want to, those you find at park & rides are often slow (and often free) chargers specifically for the purpose of parking up and then jumping on the bus. They are obviously going to need more charging points as EV use increases. Most of the fast/rapid chargers charge you a penalty if you overstay.
Until there is a way of charging a car in the same sort of time it takes to refuel with petrol, this whole project is flawed. I do thin k that will come, but I think the technology will invalidate most current EV car designs and most of the charging network. Hence my post of a few days ago.
That is coming, 350kW CCS charging will more or less fix that problem, and is beginning to be rolled out here in the UK. Of course, only new cars will be made to use the new standards, but as I suggested earlier, there will have to be some sort of accommodation for older generation vehicles. I think that a worldwide standard for connectors and 'supercharging' has to be a good thing.
I'm not ignoring the other points, they're all fair criticisms of the systems as they stand now.